15 tips to increase CRM user adoption

CRM systems help to provide a great number of benefits to businesses but sometime the hardest stage of CRM implementation can be user adoption. Without successful user adoption, your CRM system will not reach its full potential and even worse, staff are actually missing out on using a system that will help to save to make their lives’ better – as well as your clients and potential clients’.

We’ve created this list of tips to help drive user adoption and satisfaction.

Pick the best fit

Before even committing to CRM you should pick the right one for your business and while there are lots of business specific requirements you should also consider user adoption. Choosing a user-friendly system is important and is one of the reasons we recommend Microsoft Dynamics CRM as it has the familiar Microsoft look, which most people know through Word etc.

Have a clear strategy

Before anything you need to know ‘Why do I want this CRM system’? There should be a clear reason why you’re moving to CRM or switching and by understanding your CRM goals, you can ensure they are achieved.

Show the value and benefits

While a CRM system helps client relationships, it also is a huge help for staff. What better way to get your staff using the system them by showing them how it will help their day-to-day lives? This could be showing them how they can save time, save effort or remove tedious tasks from their job role so you should show them what they gain from using CRM.

Involve key teams early

Lots of people can resist change and especially unexpected change. By involving key teams and key contacts early they have longer to prepare for the switch. As well as helping them adjust, it also ensures they’re involved in the process and will make them feel more invested in the system which will boost CRM acceptance.

Create ‘champions’

Having a ‘go-to’ internal contact means that staff can easily access a knowledgable resource when needed helping increase engagement while reducing costs. As the CRM champion will be an employee they will have a great understanding of your business and can combine this with their CRM knowledge to become a great CRM driver for your business.

Get the right training

Training is vital when adopting a CRM system and budget should be allocated for this. Choosing more intuitive systems (such as Microsoft Dynamics CRM) helps to reduce training costs but any new systems needs training. To save costs, instead of training all staff you can train ‘champions’ as above who receive more detailed training and who then can train the rest of your staff and any new starters without incurring additional training costs.

Create a feedback system

CRM systems are often deployed in stages, so having a feedback system is extremely helpful so if any change management or new features need to be added they can be fed back and even included in the next phase thanks to agile project management. By allowing everyone to feedback they will also see their views are important and the most useful suggestions or improvements will come from the users themselves.

Make it fun

Gamification is popular in CRM and provides a great incentive for users to use the system effectively and get recognition – whether through badges, dashboards or rewards. (With Microsoft acquiring FantasySalesTeam, a gamification platform, a few months ago perhaps we are going to see more of this built into CRM in the next year or two).

Have check-ups

As your business evolves, so should your CRM system so it’s not a case of getting the system in and leaving it. Ideally you will have review meetings not just to check that users are happy but to see if any newly released features to ease any pain points. If you have a CRM support partner, then they should also be advising you on the latest updates and any ways to optimise your system over time.

Add a touch of design

Adding customised design can really help users enjoy using the system more, whether it’s some simple colour changes or adding your own personalised icons having some design input can really increase user experience.

Test, test and test

Testing ensures all requirements are met and that there are no errors so your systems functions as it should. Your CRM partner should provide CRM testing as part of your implementation (if they don’t then speak to them) but it’s also wise to test the system yourself to ensure its working how you want it to and to familiarise yourself.

Report it

CRM is highly effective at reporting so use it! You can report on usage and team performance to get a snapshot view of who is using the system to most or who is using it the least, as well as who is doing the most (i.e. closing the most deals, or solving the most cases etc.) This provides quick and visual information that you can use to see if anyone is struggling or excelling and act appropriately.

Make it yours

We work with Microsoft Dynamics CRM because it is highly customisable through CRM custom development, so it can be completely tailored to your business. This means you can ensure the system has the exact wording that you use in your business, so staff can navigate more easily as it's tailored to how your business runs.

Connect your systems

Having a CRM system that integrates with your existing systems (such as emails, calendars, Word, accounting software or marketing automation) is a big bonus as it removes double handling of information and allows intelligent data surfacing and will mean staff don’t have to switch between systems.

Great documentation

Quick reference guides can be very useful but we usually recommend against large CRM documents as they change so frequently and budget could be better spent on training itself. Luckily, Microsoft provide a wealth of resources, such as quick guides, videos, how to’s, eBooks and technical articles that can educate and help users and they are regularly updated and free too! Because of the giant Microsoft Dynamics CRM community, you can also find many questions and answers online thanks to its large user base and following.

We hope you’ve found these helpful! If you have any CRM questions or need any CRM help please contact us as we’d love to show you the full potential of Microsoft Dynamics CRM.